“All Work and No Play”

John finally gets some attention!

Imagine if Cora had let Zelena stay with them. It's funny how Cora - one of the most pronounced schemers and manipulators of the whole show - went for the whole "counting on others makes you weak" philosophy instead of noticing all the opportunities that taking Zelena in had.

They could have passed it off as taking her in to raise her as nobles often do with the children of other nobles. Zelena was a commoner but she saved Regina's life and they could have easily used that as an explanation. No one outside the family had to know the truth of Zelena being Cora's biological daughter. Henry would have agreed to the whole thing as soon as he saw Regina's ecstatic smile.

Zelena could have been raised with the notion that being Regina's protector is the purpose of her life. It's the reason that she was given her powerful magic - to keep her sister safe. That's why Cora had to give her away because if she'd kept her, Regina wouldn't have come to exist. And Zelena was longing for the opportunity to be good and help people. Cora could have easily used her as a proxy to control Regina without either of the girls realizing that Zelena's beliefs regarding Regina's safety and all the advice coming out of her mouth are planted in her by Cora.

ok it’s sad about regina mills hours and i love making myself sadder so can we take a minute to think about the fact regina was told to sacrifice the heart of the thing she loves most and her instinctive first response was her horse. 

Not her father, the only actual human member of her family. She has always loved her father and been very close to him - enough to name her son after him - but her first thought, above all else, when asked ‘what do you love the most’ is her horse. 

Why Not Henry? 

First of all, I just want to dip into why she didn’t initially think of her father, because he does seem like the obvious answer. Partially, it could be that she was denying it because she couldn’t let herself consider killing him if she didn’t have to.

But I think there is another layer to it, and that’s that her father might have been all the love she had for a long time, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t resentment there, too. Her entire childhood, Henry Sr stood witness to Cora’s abuse and did nothing. Sure, he was powerless and his wife was a heart-ripping sorceress, but a six year old Regina didn’t know that. All she would have been taught was that Mother hurts her sometimes, and Daddy can’t help. He could comfort her afterwards, sure, but that is not the same thing as protecting your child. 

Then we have her marriage. Regina was very vocal about the fact she did not want it - not that she had to be, she was literally a traumatised eighteen year old engaged to an elderly stranger. There’s a flashback in 2x02 where Regina is literally crying to Henry, and we have this frankly painful exchange:

Regina: I don’t want to marry the king! I’ve told you that!”

Henry Sr: ‘Are you certain it isn’t just cold feet?’

Regina: ‘This is not cold feet, this is insanity!’

She has clearly expressed her distress to him before and been disregarded and is visibly upset. To dismiss his young daughter’s fear as ‘cold feet’ seems extremely insensitive and downright gaslight-y. I personally don’t think he means any harm by it - I think it’s just his own way of trying to shepherd her into convincing herself the situation is more normal and less scary than it is, but obviously, it totally misses the mark. Maybe it’s just too painful for him to admit just how fucked up his daughter already is, because he knows his inability to protect her enabled it. But whatever his reasoning, Regina is not validated or heard. 

After this, Regina says she feels like she’s going crazy and Cora is turning her into her. Once again, Henry tries to brush this off by telling her Cora only wants her to have a good life. Regina says, once again, she doesn’t want her life and only then does Henry actually give his daughter some real information, when she asks about Rumplestiltskin. (However, it’s Regina who takes that info and decides to seek him out for help, Henry has no hand in helping.) 

Regardless, Regina marries Leopold - a guy about his own age - and suffers, and Henry stands by and watches. 

I also do think the reason Henry stands by Regina even when she is at her absolute worst, darkest, most awful Evil Queen state is because he knows he more than owes it to her, knows it is the least he can do when he stood back and allowed it all to happen. He might have given her cuddles and as much comfort as he could, empty or otherwise, but he never did anything else. He has been loving and comforting, but in a practical sense, useless. 

And I think deep down Regina has to have some resentment for that. She loves her father, but he is sort of removed from the realities of her life. He is someone who appears on the edges, to occasionally give comfort, who also brings up a lot of repressed sadness and past memories in her. And so it’s a combination of that, and genuinely not being able to face the thought of killing him, that I think keeps her from immediately thinking of him for the curse. 

Regina, Rocinante and Daniel

So, the thing Regina assumes she loves most in the world is her horse. 

And if you look at her life closely, that’s a meaningful, reasonable assumption for her to make, but on more than just one level.

On the first level, Rocinante has been a comfort to her since she was very young. She was confirmed to be eighteen in The Stable Boy, and I think it’s safe to assume she had him for a while at that point. Horse riding is Regina’s favourite hobby, even before Daniel enters the scene - it’s a taste of freedom for her, an escape from her Mother and the constraints of growing up groomed for royalty, and also, it’s something she’s good at. (For a girl whose mother relentlessly criticises her in nearly every aspect of her life, that would mean a lot). Rocinante is her teammate in this tiny outlet of freedom and joy and self-confidence.

She rides Rocinante when she tries to run away before her wedding in 2x02. So she was allowed to bring him to Leopold’s castle with her when she got married - not only would he still be a source of comfort and attachment to that now extra elusive freedom, he is all she has to connect her to her childhood home. Through her horrible marriage, her lessons with Rumple, becoming the Evil Queen - her horse is her one other constant. 

But, on that second, deeper level, Rocinante is also her last tie to Daniel.

Her riding lessons with him made up the bulk of their time together. The rest of their relationship, I assume, would have been in secret moments by the stables, or maybe a few precious hours in which they could ride off somewhere more hidden together - Rocinante would have been present, and part of it.

It was literally Daniel’s job to look after Rocinante. He cared for him, fed him, and would have probably spent more time with him than Regina did. So in a way, Rocinante is a living, breathing connection to Daniel. 

To Conclude 

So when Regina is asked to thing of the thing you love most, her brain immediately jumps to Rocinante. I think this is because her love for her horse, unlike her love for her father, is not tainted by any resentment or pain. She loves her father the most, obviously, but that love goes hand in hand with a hell of a lot of enabled abuse and traumatic memories. 

Her love for her father is complex and messy, while her love for her horse is pure and sweet, a connection to the young version of herself who actually had hope for love and happiness. Her love for Rocinante is as this totally pure thing that’s been a source of escape for her all her life. 

And of course, when Regina thinks of love she thinks of Daniel. Until Henry (baby) comes into her life, Daniel is the only real, unconditional, ‘perfect’ love she’s ever known. And Rocinante is her last connection to that. So that’s where her mind goes. 

Henry Sr: Yeah!

Cora: I don't.

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

Hmm, that’s hard. I ship practically everything in OUAT. I think Drizella x Alice is something that I just can’t see working even if Alice did think she was pretty. I can see why people think Driz was the girlfriend Alice was talking about in HH and it makes sense but I just can’t imagine what a relationship between them might look like. Also, Hook x Pan but I don’t really remember much of Pan. He did seem to get under everyone’s skin so, again, I could understand why people see things (like tension) there but I just can’t see it. Regina x August is also a fucking mystery to me even though I have seen it as a ship, though it was more of a rare pair.

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

Fandom fucked up Captain Swan for me and then fandom made me like it again so that was certainly an experience. I don’t think I had considered Emma x Lily before fandom put the thought in my head but I am extremely happy that I did because I love Star Swan so much. Hard question again since, like I said, I shipped practically everything without needing convincing for it. XD

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

Can I say all of season 6? I really, really don’t like it. But if I have to pick one single arc, it would be the bullshit they did with the “Savior” title. It was not supposed to be a title that has existed outside of Emma’s life. She was only the Savior because Rumple put Snow and David’s true love in the Curse. And then they went and made it an actual thing that has history and is passed down from a person to another. That didn’t make sense. If Aladdin is still alive, why are there other Saviors? And the fact that they blamed Rumple’s cowardice on having his string of fate cut off is just abysmal. It basically absolved him of responsibility for everything he did and I hate that so much. Especially since the main theme (or one of the main themes) was that redemption is always a road you can take no matter how far you’ve strayed from the path. (Which is also my beef with Regina’s arc in season 6 but I said I will pick one.)

17. Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen…

TW: Infertility and suicide mention

Instead of Robin in the Wish Realm, I would have had Regina find her father. He would have to be ninety at that point but I don’t care. It would have been so much better for her arc. Basically, after Daniel died, Regina “erased” the good part of herself and her father couldn’t help her so she killed him. But after Robin died, she wanted to erase the bad part of herself. However, that is not the way either and her father can help her see that because he loves both Regina and the Queen and it would pain him to see one of them die (especially since I think Wish Regina would have done before him; maybe if Cora tried to find her and manipulate her again something could have gone wrong (we already saw Regina take away her own fertility just to spite her mother so she might have taken her life as well)). Plus, Regina already saw for herself in the Underworld arc that her father could and did love even her evil parts. So that would have been better for her self-acceptance arc and I would have ended it with her and the Queen merging again because that would have been true acceptance. The two of them just coming to a point where they are so in sync that they are practically one person even as they are separated so there is no point to them being split.

21. What are your thoughts on crack ships?

My thoughts are that I usually don’t look at them as crack ships. If you come with a pairing to me I will consider it realistically and will find some way to have it happen plausibly or I will discard it. So personally, I can’t have crack ships if I wanted to. My ships are only canon or fanon but I am serious about everything that I ship and have some idea how to have it happen realistically or at least I have some idea what will draw them to each other. I don’t have an issue with people having crackships but if I can’t see it, I will not read it/watch it.

Requested by anonymous